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NILES — Niles High School senior Sawyer Lundberg recently authored, illustrated and published a children’s book about the importance of planting trees to help the environment.

The 17-year-old Niles student said his 74-page book titled “Harry’s Trees” is a story about a little dog named Harry who plants tree saplings to help the environment and seeks to encourage children to make a difference through simple small acts.

“I wanted to get the message out that one person can make a difference and hopefully inspire others to help make the world better,” Lundberg said. “Everyone, regardless of their age, can take action, like planting trees, recycling water bottles or even picking up trash in their neighborhood.”

Lundberg is no stranger to working toward improved sustainability in Southwest Michigan communities. For the last two years the Niles student spearheaded his own Earth Day themed service project called Trees Across Berrien in an effort to distribute over hundreds tree saplings to schools in Buchanan, Niles, Edwardsburg, Coloma, Berrien Springs and Watervliet. 

On Sept. 22, Lundberg visited Northside Child Development Center in Niles to read his book to preschool students in Donna Dodge’s Montessori classroom. Lundberg also donated a copy of Harry’s Tree to Dodge’s classroom library.  

“I want to thank Mrs. Dodge and her students for allowing me to come and read to the class,” Lundberg said. “It was really fun visiting with the little kids and seeing their positive reactions to the story.”

Sawyer’s book is available on Amazon.